Louisiana law requires the police to write a report whenever they respond to a domestic violence call.1 A well-written police report will include the defendant’s admissions, excited utterances by those present, and a description of injuries. In Louisiana, however, police reports are generally inadmissible.2 You may be able to introduce a police report if the defendant does not object. Police reports (or testimony about them) are sometimes admissible in child custody actions under the limited applicability rules of La. C.E. art. 1101.3
In practice, many judges do not allow police reports in under Article 1101 and make a victim’s proof of domestic violence more difficult by excluding them. Police officer witnesses may use the police report to refresh their recollection. Although police reports are generally inadmissible, a police report may still be used to cross-examination or impeach a defendant with prior inconsistent statements or omissions, which do not require a report’s admission into evidence. Additionally, a related arrest may be admissible even if the report is not, as discussed below.
Arrest records, on the other hand, are generally admissible in custody cases when relevant to an issue other than witness credibility, such as a parent’s fitness. Although La. C.E. art. 609(F) prohibits an arrest, indictment, or prosecution from being used to attack a witness’s credibility, if the arrest tends to make the existence of any other fact of consequence to the determination of the action more or less probable, it is relevant and admissible. So, for example, arrest records showing a parent’s history of serial abuse against prior intimate partners should be relevant to show lack of moral fitness or risk that the child will be exposed to future abuse. Arrest records that speak to the children’s best interests are admissible under La. C.E. art. 1011(B)(2).